~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, MaineThe Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS), often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard located in Kittery on the southern boundary of Maine near the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. PNS is tasked with the overhaul, repair, and modernization of US Navy submarines.The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was established on June 12, 1800 during the administration of President John Adams, and is the U.S. Navy's oldest continuously operating shipyard. It sits on a cluster of conjoined islands called Seavey's Island in the Piscataqua River, whose swift...

One of the many bright spots in the 2016 elections for supporters of the Second Amendment was the defeat of Question 3 in Maine. The question was portrayed as relatively straightforward. From ballotpedia: Do you want to require background checks prior to the sale or transfer of firearms between individuals not licensed as firearms dealers, with failure to do so punishable by law, and with some exceptions for family members, hunting, self-defense, lawful competitions, and shooting range activity?[8] Question 3 was more complicated in reality. It was three full pages long. You may read the entire proposition in a...

Maine residents have approved a ballot question that will allow voters to rank their choice of candidates. Under the election overhaul, ballots are counted at the state level in multiple rounds. Last-place candidates are eliminated until a candidate wins by a majority. The voting style will apply to races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, state Senate and state House. Proponents of ranked-choice voting say it will prevent a governor from being elected with less than 50 percent of the votes. That was the scenario when Gov. Paul LePage was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Ranked choice voting...

The Maine Background Checks for Gun Sales Measure, also known as Question 3, was on the November 8, 2016, ballot in Maine as an indirect initiated state statute. It was defeated.The Nevada Background Checks for Gun Purchases Initiative, also known as Question 1, was on the November 8, 2016, ballot in Nevada as an indirect initiated state statute. It was approved.California approved a measure that outlaws possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, requires background checks for ammunition sales and allows the state to immediately remove firearms from people who have been convicted of a felony or violent misdemeanor. Washington state also...

Since 1972, Maine has had the option to divide its Electoral College votes by congressional district. The outright winner of the state gets two electoral vote, and the winner of each congressional district gets one. Despite this, Maine has never actually had to divide its electoral votes and the same candidate has always won both districts--until now. Although Hillary Clinton won Maine outright and won the 1st congressional district, Donald Trump won the more rural 2nd district--and its electoral vote. Trump's win in CD2 is a direct result of the campaign's extensive campaigning over the past two weeks in the...

The bitter defeat in the presidential race has many supporters of Democrat Hillary Clinton shell-shocked in Maine. Among them is Stephen King. King, the best-selling author, tweeted early Wednesday that he’s going offline, saying there will be “No more book recommendations, politics, or amusing dog pictures for the immediate future. I’m shutting down.”

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has raised far more money from far more people than Donald Trump’s across Maine. But if you break out Clinton’s $1.5 million and Trump’s $153,000 by congressional district, the picture becomes less lopsided. In the 1st District, encompassing southern Maine, Clinton raised more than $13 for every $1 picked up by the Trump campaign. But her lead narrowed in the 2nd District, where the Democrat raised a little more than $4 for every $1 that went to her Republican rival, according to reports covering contributions through Oct. 25. The money race is no predictor of how the...

Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage says his state is withdrawing from the federal government’s refugee resettlement program. The Portland Press Herald reports LePage sent a letter to Democratic President Barack Obama on Friday citing concerns about the adequacy of vetting of refugees coming from countries such as Syria. …

Nonprofit “ dark money” groups have doled out about half of the funds fueling Maine’s five citizen-initiated ballot questions in November. They include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, the National Rifle Association, national and state teachers unions, the Marijuana Policy Project and nonprofits supporting ranked-choice voting. Unlike political action committees or political party committees, certain nonprofits can spend for political ends but don’t have to disclose their individual donors. Dubbed “dark money” groups, they make it impossible to trace some of the money in this year’s election back to a specific location or...

The Trump campaign appears to be riding high and operating optimistically headed into the final week of the presidential campaign. The clearest sign of that comes in the form of a $25 million ad buy that includes new spots in Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Mexico, all of which are classified as leaning Democratic in the current ABC News state ratings. The only of those three states that has recent reputable polling is Pennsylvania, the latest of which has Clinton leading by six points in the Oct. 16 Quinnipiac survey. Michigan hasn't voted Republican since 1988 and New Mexico has only...

The latest polling data from Maine’s second congressional district has Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a statistical tie, exactly a week before the 2016 presidential election. The latest Emerson poll has Clinton leading Trump by two points, or 44 percent to Trump’s 42 percent, whilst Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein are at six percent and two percent respectively. Meanwhile, a Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC) poll has Trump leading Clinton by three points, or 41 percent compared to Clinton’s 38 percent, whilst Johnson and Stein trail behind at eight percent and three percent. Trump last campaigned in...

Friday, October 28, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Lisbon, ME at Open Door Christian Academy Lisbon, ME. The population was 9,009 at the 2010 census. Open Door Christian Academy Friday, October 28, 2016: Live stream coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Manchester, NH at Radisson Armory. Coverage begin at 12:30 PM ET Manchester, NH at Radisson Armory. Friday, October 28, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Cedar Rapids, IA at McGrath Amphitheatre. Live coverage at 7:00 PM CT. McGrath Amphitheatre

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s school children have spoken, and they have chosen Donald Trump and said no to marijuana. Students from more than 150 Maine schools chose the Republican businessman over Democrat Hillary Clinton in a mock election. The results were tallied Wednesday in the state capital of Augusta.

During my time as the U.S. Attorney for Maine, particularly during the Bush administration, prosecuting gun crimes — including gun trafficking — was a high priority. A loophole in Maine law allows dangerous people to buy guns from unlicensed sellers without a background check. Since 1998, background checks performed by licensed Maine dealers have kept guns out of the hands of more than 5,500 people who are prohibited by law from them. And while it is true that background checks occur when ordering a gun from a licensed internet dealer as well as at brick-and-mortar gun shops, there are no...

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is finally spending more money than Hillary Clinton’s. Trump’s campaign will spend almost $11.7 million on television ads set to run in eleven states this week, topping Clinton’s spending on ads for the first time. The Clinton campaign is spending $10.5 million on advertising in seven states.

Saturday, October 15, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Portsmouth, NH at Toyota of Portsmouth. The event will begin at 12:00 PM ET. Toyota of Portsmouth Saturday, October 15, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Bangor, ME at â€‹Cross Insurance Center. Live coverage of the event 3:00 PM ET. Cross Insurance Center

Maine Gov. Paul LePage stood by Donald Trump in a radio interview on Tuesday, saying that the United States might need someone like the GOP nominee to show "authoritarian power," and dismissing concerns over an audiotape leaked last week that showed Trump describing how he forces himself upon women. "Sometimes, I wonder that our Constitution is not only broken, but we need a Donald Trump to show some authoritarian power in our country and bring back the rule of law because we've had eight years of a president, he's an autocrat, he just does it on his own, he ignores...

Commercial fishing boat owners and groups are reacting to the executive action taken by President Obama that created a marine national preserve in the North Atlantic on Sept. 15. They say that banning commercial fishing there is unnecessary, since the fishing industry has already been working with government agencies on conservation measures.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER The Republican governor of Maine told Breitbart News that he is confident that GOP nominee for president Donald J. Trump wins at least three of the state’s four electoral votes. “I said about three weeks ago, it’s not one point in play anymore, it is at least three,” said Gov. Paul R. LePage, who was referring to how like Nebraska, Maine allows its congressional districts to award their electoral votes separately. In the case of Maine, two electoral votes go to the statewide winner and then one vote goes to the winner of each its...

A Maine town’s tourism sector has come under fire after some visitors have been complaining about a large, hand-painted sign on a private lawn that reads “Black Rifles Matter.” Linc Sample, the sign’s creator, told NECN on Monday that his work in Boothbay Harbor is about gun rights, not race. He was inspired to post the sign after reading an ad in the local paper that supported a ban on assault weapons.

Ipsos is a top-ranked polling firm — and it is producing a series of state polls showing Donald Trump doing dramatically better than the polls by other trusted polling firms. Those Ipsos state polls show Trump clinching leads in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine. That’s really big because President Barack Obama won all those states in 2012. Obama won Wisconsin by 6.7 points, Michigan by 9.5 points, Maine by 15.1 points, and New Hampshire by 5.8 points. The Real Clear Politics poll-aggregation site shows Trump behind Clinton in Michigan by eight percentage points, but Ipsos shows Trump just ahead...

Gov. Paul LePage raised the possibility Tuesday that he may not finish his second term, amid mounting pressure from Democrats and members of his own party to amend for his recent actions. “I’m looking at all options,” the Republican governor said while appearing on WVOM, a Bangor talk radio station. “I think some things I’ve been asked to do are beyond my ability. I’m not going to say that I’m not going to finish it. I’m not saying that I am going to finish it.” He later said, “If I’ve lost my ability to help Maine people, maybe it’s time...

Speaking about Maine's effort to combat drug crime, Paul LePage said that "the enemy right now... are people of colour or people of Hispanic origin". [snip] Mr LePage was asked about a statement he made in January, in which he blamed the state's heroin problem on "guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty" who "come from Connecticut and New York". "They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave," he said.

<p>Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage left an expletive-filled voicemail for a state lawmaker who called his recent comments about drug dealers racist, the Portland Press Herald reports.</p>
<p>LePage called the lawmaker a “socialist cocksucker” and later said he would like to have an armed duel.</p>

The national monument designation has faced opposition in the region. Gov. Paul LePage released a statement Tuesday afternoon condemning the land donation. "That's one way to get out of paying taxes to the state of Maine," he said. "It's sad that rich, out-of-state liberals can team up with Obama to force a national monument on rural Mainers who do not want it." The governor did not stop to talk to reporters Wednesday afternoon after an event in Portland, but his office released a statement. “President Obama is once again taking unilateral action against the will of the people, this time...

BANGOR, Maine — The closing of one of the last two Howard Johnson restaurants in a couple of weeks will mark the end of its fried clam strips, ice cream and other menu staples that nourished baby boomers and leave the once-proud restaurant chain teetering on the brink of extinction. The slice of roadside Americana will no longer be served up in Bangor after Sept. 6. For waitress Kathe Jewett, it's the only job she's held since starting work when the restaurant opened in 1966. "It's bittersweet, but it's nothing to be sad about," the 68-year-old Jewett insisted Tuesday during...

Gov. Paul LePage has pounced on the recent unsealing of court documents showing an Iranian refugee who resettled in Maine and later joined the terror group ISIS. But the governor’s eagerness to use Adnan Fazeli’s radicalization here to rail against welfare benefits for refugees may have led him to run afoul of a federal law designed to protect the identities of welfare recipients and their families. According to federal rules, the identities of benefit recipients are confidential — only law enforcement, immigration officials and state administrators are allowed to know who receives the benefits. Those same officials, according to the...

Sen. Susan Collins appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning from the WGME studios, explaining why she is not voting for her party’s presidential nominee. […] Collins said she can’t support Hillary Clinton either. She said she is considering the Libertarian ticket, but that’s not a sure thing either. “I may write in a candidate who I believe would be best qualified to lead our country,” Collins said. …

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Donald Trump's characterization of Somalis as dangerous and a drag on resources could undo years of work that they have done to establish themselves in the country's whitest state, Somali residents said Friday. Trump told a packed audience in Portland on Thursday that Maine is a "major destination" for Somali refugees and that they're coming from some of the "most dangerous" places. All told, about 10,000 Somalis lives in Portland and Lewiston, Maine's largest cities. [snip] On Friday afternoon, Somali organizers held a rally on the steps of City Hall to respond to Trump. One read...

Liberal Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who scored just 30 percent on The New American’s latest Freedom Index, wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post explaining why she will not support for Donald Trump for president.In her brief article, Collins, who has a record of being anti-Second Amendment, pro-abortion (despite identifying as a Catholic), and in favor of giving an Obama Supreme Court nominee a hearing, did not mention a single issue upon which she bases her opposition to a Trump presidency. He entire argument against her party’s nominee boils down to her dissatisfaction with comments that Trump...

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has become the second and most-senior Republican senator to say she will not vote for GOP nominee Donald Trump for president. In an op-ed published online Monday night in The Washington Post, Ms. Collins said it was “not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican.” The column outlined a series of common criticisms of Mr. Trump’s conduct and temperament — mocking a reporter with disabilities, feuding wioth a Muslim Gold Star family, suggesting a Mexican-American judge might not be impartial.

Standing in the growing line outside Merrill Auditorium this morning, one Trump supporter – a former 'Bernie Bro' – says the candidate 'is not graceful and he's not eloquent, but he's still my guy.' Hours before the doors opened Thursday at Portland’s Merrill Auditorium, supporters began showing up for a rally with Donald Trump, whose presidential campaign continues to attract grass-roots voter support even as the Republican candidate increasingly frustrates and alienates leaders of his own party. At the same time, a growing number of protesters thronged the plaza in front of Portland City Hall as the day progressed, chanting...

After the deadly terror attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, a restaurant owner in Portland (Maine not Oregon) wanted to do something â€śoutside the boxâ€ť in order to solve the problem of â€śgun violenceâ€ť in America.So she wrote a post on Facebook.Anne Verrill, owner of two Portland-area restaurants, wrote on Facebook that anyone who ownsÂ—or even supports an individualâ€™s right to ownÂ—an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, may â€śno longer enter either of my restaurants, because the only thing I want to teach my children is love.â€ťThe post was deleted after a bunch of people on the internet who like guns...

After a gunman killed 49 people in June at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Anne Verrill, a prominent Maine restaurateur, swung through a range of familiar emotions: frustration, anger, helplessness. She reflected, too, on her typical response to the nation’s litany of gun massacres. “We write Facebook posts, we copy and paste, and we talk about it with people who basically agree with us,” Ms. Verrill, 38, said the other day. “We’ve never really done anything outside the box with regard to gun control.”

Names of 18 arrested in Portland protest released Most of those charged with obstructing a public way for blocking Commercial Street are in their 20s and from Portland. BY BETH QUIMBY STAFF WRITER The 18 people arrested in Friday night’s protest against police shootings of black men that blocked off a busy portion of Commercial Street in Portland for hours were mostly residents of the city in their 20s. Portland police released a list of the names of those arrested Saturday afternoon. A 16-year-old minor was not identified. All were charged with obstructing a public way. They Portland residents were...

Donald Trump's political director, Jim Murphy, told House members that the campaign would focus on 17 states this fall, the Wall Street Journal reports. Included are 12 states Barack Obama won in both 2008 and 2012 (145 electoral votes) and five states Mitt Romney won in 2012. Not in the list are extreme longshots like California and New York, states Trump has previously indicated would be competitive for him.

The organization behind an effort to raise Maine’s minimum wage to $12 an hour has been advertising for new workers at a rate closer to $10 an hour. An online ad posted Tuesday by the Maine People’s Alliance indicates new phone canvassers/organizers would be paid $429 every two weeks for working 21.25 hours a week. That works out to $10.09 an hour, considerably less than the $12 minimum wage the alliance is seeking by 2020. The discrepancy was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative news and commentary website. Mike Tipping, communications director for the people’s...

In a nine-word per curiam decision, eight justices of the United States Supreme Court have revealed they are deadlocked in a 4 to 4 divide on the new immigration procedures of the Obama administration, with its executive decision to not deport the immigrant parents of children born in the United States (thus citizens) and give them legal status but less than citizenship in the process. The State of Texas, joined by 25 others states, filed a lawsuit to block this executive action, which affects between 4 and 5 million immigrants in the United States. The case was before the Supreme...

A drug deal was going down in a WalMart parking lot. Some of the participants were not happy with the deal. They could not use the criminal justice system, so they used guns. Shots were exchanged between occupants of two cars in the lot. The WalMart parking lot was not in New York or New Jersey. This WalMart was in Augusta, Maine, and in Maine, responsible and honest people can legally carry guns. Two honest and responsible gun carriers stopped the shooting. The shooting in the Maine WalMart was between New York residents, and it involved Heroin. The four...